


Coals to Shadow

by Meowmix21



Series: Meowmix's Linked-verse Journey [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: 200 questions, M/M, Meowmix's Vio, Panic Attacks, Parental Figure Urbosa (Legend of Zelda), Revali (Legend of Zelda) Being an Asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29913027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meowmix21/pseuds/Meowmix21
Summary: Four and Wild play 200 questions. Wild gets twig out of her hair, Four learns something earth shattering.
Relationships: Shadow Link/Vio Link
Series: Meowmix's Linked-verse Journey [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199603
Kudos: 54





	Coals to Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> This one was awesome to write, I am an expert of 200 questions myself. :)

Her breathing evened out, as she came back to herself. She turned her head hearing something to her side.

Four was sitting nearby but not to close. He was singing the stupid song Wind had taught them. If slightly, differently.

“44 bottles booze on the wall, 44 bottles booze on the wall, take one down throw it across the room and there’s even more booze on the floor. 43 bottles juice on the wall, 43 bottles juice on the wall take one down throw it down and slide across the floor wee! 42 bottles of water, 42 bottles of water take one down drink down ah. 41 bottles of stuff on the wall, 41 bottles of stuff on the wall why are we singing this song?”

Wild giggled hearing each of their, unique versions.

They stopped singing smiling at her. His eyes changing colors, looks of concern in all four of them. Before they settled on green. “So ready to talk? And maybe come out of that bush?”

Slowly she pulled herself out of the bush, waiting on Green to speak.

“So why don’t we play 200 questions?”

Although her voice was rough from crying, she sounded amused as well, “200? I thought Legend said it was 20.” 

“We suck at guessing, or well none of us can agree on a question.”

“Alright ask away,” She wagged her finger at them, “but I have a few questions as well.”

“How about all of us take turns guessing.”

“So, you get four questions to my one question.”

“Kind of but our questions are going to be so different it wouldn’t result in us picking on a subject between all four of us.” 

Green eyes rolled, “Example is the argument currently going on. It’s about who will go first. We voted and I’m first, then Blue because he is insisting on going first but the rest voted for me to go first. Vio offered to go last so Red and then do you want to go before or after Vio?”

“I’ll go after Vio.”

Green nodded, “Alright this has been bugging me for a while. How did you figure us out?”

“You prefer different foods depending on eye color.”

Green blinked, “Our taste in food?” 

Four’s eyes turned Blue, “Hey it’s my turn to ask a question.” 

He turned to Wild, “What’s your weapon preference? We are going to make you a weapon that won’t break. We need to know what to make.”

“One handed sword, the royal guard sword is both pretty and deadly, but they break so easily. My next favorite would be the ancient short sword. It glows and takes longer to break.”

Nodding Red looked at her, “How are you feeling?”

Wild looked away, “Fine.”

Blue interrupted, “Do you know what fine stands for?” 

When Wild only gave him a confused look he continued, “Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, Elephant.”

“Elephant?”

“I can never remember the last one.”

Vio took over, “It’s emotional. Now stop interrupting Blue. It’s rude.” 

He turned and looked at Wild, “Is our taste in food really the thing that caught us out? I just, it seems a bit little to nitpicky a thing to figure us out.”

“I noticed that when I was picking dishes or seasoning based on your eye colors you also behaved differently. On violet days you preferred to talk with Time and talk about philosophical stuff, you also use bigger words. Then whenever you were worried about someone or talking with Wind and Hyrule your eyes were always red. It took a while for Blue. But I noticed your eyes where always blue when fighting or talking to Warriors and Legend.”

Wild cleared her throat leaning backwards on to her hands, “I mean normally your eyes are green and you talk about all sorts of stuff and everybody. Although you do talk more about smithing when your eyes were green than at any other times.”

Violet eyes blinked back at her, “Well that’s a bit impressive. I don’t think anyone else has figured it out. I mean several of them seem to know I have some sort of secret but like Twilight and Wolfie their leaving it alone until we are ready to talk about. Well, what’s your question?”

Wild looked at her hands as she rubbed them against each other., “Why don’t you tell everyone that you can split? That your one person but at the same time your four people?”

Green rubbed the back of his neck glancing away from her, “Why hasn’t Twilight told anyone about Wolfie? We know no one would care but we still worry that they will think it’s too weird.”

“Now my turn, I know you made one of our favorites today, partial in thanks we believe, and also in spite to the others. Now what’s your favorite meal, or desert or whatever.”

“I really like Durian Bread.”

“You should make it for us some time then. It must be great if you think it’s the best.”

Blue sat forward, “How did you come to name Twilight Wolfie?” 

She froze, before looking back down at her hands, “I’m just glad I didn’t name him something weirder.”

She could tell she had all of Four’s divided attention.

“Twilight of course knows this, but I never told anyone about the extent of my memory loss.”

“When I got out of the pool in the shrine, I didn’t know anything. Some voice was calling me Link and telling me to pick up the slate. Quite frankly its embarrassing thinking about walking out of the shrine. I don’t want to tell you how long it took me to put on the clothing I found. I still ended up putting the pants on backward.” 

She shook her head, “Any ways I wandered out and saw this weird thing on the ground and picked it up. Suddenly I knew it was a tree branch. Which left me with some confusion as I didn’t know what a tree was, or a branch. I tried to eat it.”

Four’s eyes flashed different colors as he broke down laughing. They apologized for interrupting her, following with, “It’s just such a, you, response.”

She smiled continuing, “Anyways Wolfie dropped a mushroom on my foot. Figuring out it was edible I started following Wolfie as he obviously knew what was going on. Poking him the only thing that came to my mind was the word, ‘wolf’ so I called him that.”

She laughed, “It was weeks later when I realized that ‘wolf’ was a kind of animal and not his name. By that time, I had met one of my friends from before. She called me Linkie, so I called him Wolfie. He responded to it, so I went with it.” 

They both broke down laughing before Red too his turn, “So what is your favorite memory, from back then?”

“The first memory I had of Mipha, the Zoran Champion. We were sitting on Vah Ruta and she was healing a cut on my arm. It was the first memory I had that felt only good emotions about.”

Vio glanced at her before looking back into the woods, “She was the one we saw earlier? Just yes or no is fine.”

“Yes.” She left it at that before asking her own question, “What’s the weirdest argument you’ve ever had with each other?”

“What to wear in our merged form after the adventure. Since by then we had all had a chance to pick up a preference in what to wear. None of us wanted to wear the other colors but all of us wanted to wear our color.”

Vio broke in, “I want to make it clear. I wasn’t part of this argument.”

Green eyes rolled, “Yes you still weren’t talking to us yet.”

“Anyways we came to this and included Vio even though he wasn’t talking to us. Quite frankly we probably come to the decision faster if Vio had been involved.”

“Well, you guys definitely decided on something cool.”

Red smiled, “Thanks it was my idea.”

Blue grumbled, “It wasn’t all your idea.”

Green took over, “It was all of Red’s idea.” Before giving Blue back control.

“Whatever. Who were the other Champions?”

“Well I’ll start with Revali, he would demand to go first. He was an amazing with a bow. He trained so hard that he came up with a brand-new technique he called Revali’s gale. It launched him into the air creating his own updraft. I could never as be good an archer as him.”

“That’s kind of terrifying considering your skill with the bow.”

“He said he should have been the main champion not me. Looking back at those memories I think I might have agreed. Not verbally of course, I never spoke to anyone outside of the domain by that point. I’m not sure if I was using sign at the time, or if the other champions knew hylian sign language.”

“I know I loved the domain. They were the only ones that still treated me the same as ever. I traveled there frequently as a child from what Sidon has told me. He was the one that told me that Mipha and I were in love.”

“It’s the reason I have the Zoran armor, its traditional for women in their culture to gift the one they wished to marry a piece of armor as a sign of intent. I was working on my own gift, following Zoran tradition.”

“Do you know where it is now?”

“That’s an extra question.”

“Sorry.”

“I do know where it is. It’s in my slate now. I had left it with King Delphian before the calamity for safe keeping. She’s the one that hurts the most, being unable to remember her. Sidon tells me about her, what he remembers, a couple of times I’ve remembered something he didn’t. Which is fun to remind him of something.” Her voice went soft, “I like to think she would approve of us.”

Before Four could question her about the odd comment, she continued, “Now Daruk, he was the goron champion. He was huge, his hair looked like tiny mountains on his head. I have very few memories of him, but I know he was kind.”

“The fourth and final champion was the gerudo champion Urbosa. She was glad to become a Champion and pilot Vah Norbis. She had been personally angry that Gannon had claimed to be gerudo in the past. Otherwise, she was a just and kind leader. I always felt safe in my memories when she was nearby. Her daughter Riji is now the gerudo chief, and her sand seal Patricia is so adorable.”

Red waited to see if she would continue before asking, “Why don’t you use the other Champions powers, if they each gave you one.”

“They did, but they all talked about using the power to stop the calamity and,” the words turned bitter, “Save the Princess.”

“If you still have the powers, they probably want you to keep using them.”

Wild shrugged.

Vio face was troubled, “Do you not like your Zelda, if yes would you elaborate? You don’t have to. That’s not part of my question.”

“I don’t like her. My memories of her are never good.” She snorted, “The best one would be the time she tried to get me to eat a living frog. She was always yelling at me for me tracking her down after she ran off. Like it was my choice to follow her, it was my job and she never understood that.”

She swallowed thickly, “I always feel like I got run over by lyneal after those memories. Considering how I felt around Warrior in the beginning. I think whenever I lost the princess, even at her orders to leave her alone. I got some sort of, extra training or something.”

Vio’s eyes where sad, “I’m sorry I asked.”

Wild shook her head. “It’s okay, if I hadn’t wanted to tell you that, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Now my question.” She pulled her slate out, “What’s up with your shadow?”

Vio’s eyes widened, tone defensive, “What about h-it?”

“It didn’t show up in photos at first,” she held up the screen. It showed a picture from one of the first days in their journey, “See its absent here.”

Four’s body relaxed somewhat as Green took over, he tried to speak but Wild cut him off showing him another picture, “But here your shadow is getting darker.” It was a photo from a couple of months ago.

Suddenly Four was in four bodies as Vio grabbed the slate from her. The others fell over not expecting the sudden separation from their merged body. Hell, they didn’t know they could do that without the sword.

Wild blinked before looking at Vio, “Uh?”

Vio’s eyes were locked on the screen, “Are there any more?”

Wild reached around Vio, in between the rest of Four. She managed to swipe screen causing more recent pictures to appear. 

By the time they came to the most recent photo Vio was shaking, Blue and Green had each grabbed one side of the slate to hold it steady. Red was hugging Vio tightly. He looked like he was moments away from outright bawling, in comparison Vio was already crying large tear tracks running down his face.

The most recent picture had their shadow almost the same color as the other shadows. Wild pointed at their shadow. In the picture they had all been laughing at Warriors, who was freaking out about the mud Wind had managed to get into his hair. 

“See that’s when it really started to look weird. It’s not going the right way.”

Vio’s hands dropped from the slate and he buried his head in his hands, shoulders shaking with his tears.

Blue had turned to Vio and Red trying to comfort the pair. 

Green looked towards Wild, eyes wide, “Can you take another photo and see if it really is Shadow?”

Wild blinked, before glancing around the dark clearing. “One second.” 

Prying the slate from Green’s hands she moved it to the weapon screen. Several giant flameblades fell to the ground. Walking around the clearing she stabbed them into the ground so any shadows would be clear. 

For good matter she quickly started a fire with some wood and one of the blades. By the time she sat back down next to Four it was almost as bright as noon in the clearing.

Swiping the slate, she clicked on the camera rune and reversed the camera view. It clearly revealed their shadows. 

In the area were Four should have had four shadows, there was only one and not where it should have been. The shadow was trying to trying to brush Vio’s hair out of his face. The hair moved as if in a small breeze.

“By the goddesses,” Green swore, “That, that has to be him. That has to be Shadow!” 

Shadow waved with his off hand. The other was still trying to fix Vio’s hair.

Green grabbed the slate and shoved it towards Vio, “LOOK!”

Vio managed to glance up and stared into the screen, “Shadow?”

Shadow’s head moved indistinctly before he instead used his other hand to make the yes motion.

“You’re really here.” Vio reached out trying to touch where Shadow would have been if he was corporal, “Are you hurt? Is that why you’re stuck like that? Is there something I can do?”

Shadow signed one handed, the other hand now touching Vio’s knee. He slowly used each sign before moving onto the next. It looked like “Weak. Heal. Slow. Near twilight. Help.” No one could be certain those where the correct signs as all of those signs were supposed to be two handed, but Shadow had never moved his other hand. 

Wild blinked at the signs trying to make sure she deciphered them correctly, “Does being near Wolfie help or just Twilight?”

“Yes No.”

“So if I ask Twilight to sleep on Four that will help?”

“Yes,” several hand motions later he ended on a sign that was understandable one handed, “Silly.” 

Obvious not the first choice but Wolfie sleeping on top of Four would be silly looking. 

“Well let’s get back to the group so you can either sit on Twilight or I can talk to Wolfie later, when I get the chance.”

The left Vio with the camera as they began to collect up the swords. Letting Vio to spend a little more time with Shadow. 

Green looked horrified as Wild just dropped the blades onto the group haphazardly on top of each other. Red and Blue merely winced, making sure to place the blades they had gotten down carefully. 

Green stared at the pile aghast, no wonder Wild’s blades broke with how he treated his weapons.

Wild sighed, “Vio I need to put out the fire. I can let you use the camera at night when I don’t need it for cooking and such. Oh, how long do you think will it take to heal?”

Vio, the only one looking at the screen nodded, “He says soon, two to three weeks.”

Wild nodded, “That’s great. Now I need the slate to put everything away.”

Vio nodded as he stood up his smile soft, uttering a, “Me to.” Before he gave the slate to Wild.

Vio shook his head trying to put on his normal calm expression, it fell far short but no one mentioned it.

The four stared at each other. 

Red shuffled his feet, “So how do we become one? We don’t have the Four Sword.”

The four glancing at each other before they settled on Vio, “Well you’re the one that split us, do you know how to undo it?”

It was hard to tell Vio if blushed, as his eyes still red and his face spotchy from all the crying, “Honestly, I have no idea.”

“Well how did you split us?”

“I don’t recall. I just tried to grab control, not separate us.”

Red glanced at Green and Blue, “I tried to push him into control.”

Blue smiled, “Same.”

Green sighed “I was just trying to fall back to give him control.”

Vio looked around the group, smiling, “Thanks. Unfortunately, that doesn’t tell us how to undo this.”

Blue shrugged, “We could try merging? Um maybe focus on putting Green in charge?”

The others shrugged, with no better ideas they grabbed onto each other and closed their eyes. 

Wild watched for at time waiting for something to happen. Eventually she sighed, “I don’t think that’s working.”

Stepping back they looked at each other. 

Blue was the first to speak, “Well we’re screwed.” Red glared slightly at the language until both Green and Vio agreed.

Green looked around, “So I guess we’re telling everyone? Or are we going to have Wild sneak back into camp and throw the Four Sword at us without touching it somehow? I mean we don’t know if the sword will split the other heroes up. Most of us have just being cautious. Vio’s the one that doesn’t want anyone touching it.”

Red glanced at the others, “Maybe if he wears gloves?”

Blue side eyed him, “Do you want to deal with the possibility of four Wilds?”

Wild reminded them, “I’ve touched the scabbard before, and nothing happened. What if I make sure to only touch the scabbard before I yeet it into the woods.”

“Yeeting?”

“Something Wind said the other day when he threw a rock at a monster.”

The all sighed leaving it to Green to choose, “We are going to have to explain anyways, do you think it will go over better if we’re together or separate?”

Vio snorted, “No one is going to believe us unless we separate.”

Blue glared, “I bet they will.”

Green turned to Wild, “So ‘yeet’ the sword to us and then we can explain, after which we can separate if we need to prove it. Other wise I know I’m tired enough to fall asleep. It shouldn’t be to hard to shift our bed roll closer to Twilight without raising suspicion, we are already close to him.”

Vio nodded, “So Wild gets the sword to us, we merge, join the group and explain, separate to prove ourselves, and then remerge and fall asleep next to Twilight.”

The group nodded agreeing on the plan before heading back towards the camp.

Halfway back Blue noticed that Vio eyes had gotten misty, so he tried to distract him, “Bet you five rubies they believe us without splitting.”

Vio smiled eyes clearing focusing on the now, successfully distracted from his thoughts, “You’re on.”

Green just sighed. They did realize it was all their own money. Right?

**Author's Note:**

> As always constructive comments appreciated!


End file.
